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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23662198">Taking a Page From Daddy's Book</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheUltimateFanGirl7/pseuds/TheUltimateFanGirl7'>TheUltimateFanGirl7</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Miraculous Bio!Dad AU [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Miraculous Ladybug, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Badass Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Demigod Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Graphic Depictions of Illness, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I'll warn you when they do, OOC characters, Sort Of, Suicide, Trigger Warnings, but neither of those happen for a while, i mean kinda, which I explain at the end of the story</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 23:47:19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>9,126</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23662198</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheUltimateFanGirl7/pseuds/TheUltimateFanGirl7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Dionysus was one of the most underestimated gods, but also one of the most dangerous. The Ancient Greeks told stories of why you should never anger a god, and even Dionysus was a god. He controlled madness. Why ever would you cross him? And Marinette Dupain-Cheng was his daughter, who inherited his control of madness. If you would not cross him, why would you cross her?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Miraculous Bio!Dad AU [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1693174</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>313</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Miraculous LadyBug Stories, Percy Jackson Stories</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is the first branch in my Miraculous Bio!Dad series. I have absolutely no idea why I wrote this one first since there were actually several others I had planned on doing first. But here you go.</p><p>I do have two outtakes planned for this story, and they'll be posted when I finish them which shouldn't take very long as they themselves won't be terribly long. At least that's the plan. This story kinda got away from me, so we'll see what happens with the outtakes.</p><p>Chow for now ~TheUltimateFanGirl7</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Finding her father was a lot harder than she had been expecting. Her flight had gone well, and she arrived in New York City without any problems, things began going awry.</p><p> </p><p>It turned out to be rather difficult to find someone in such a big city with only a first name, even one as unique as his. It was through pure luck that she had even known to come to New York in the first place! Her parents had spent a great deal of her childhood tracking rumors and odd pieces of news. Combining their gathered data with what they remembered from the night of her conception and a great deal of faith and hope had landed her here. To make matters worse, she had never been very good with technology, and as such couldn’t figure out the computers at the library she ducked into for research.</p><p> </p><p>She ended up just wandering around the streets of the city aimlessly during the day and pouring over seemingly endless illegally acquired papers that she’d rather not mention in the hotel Uncle Jagged had booked for her.</p><p> </p><p>She spent weeks repeating this routine to no end. She made a friend in a cheerful park ranger in Central Park a few days into her stay, and the only time she took off from her search was when she went to visit him. He had taken a rather odd interest in her, but she had had the inexplicable urge to trust him. At first, she had been rather wary of the urge, but Tikki and the other kwamiis assured her it was alright. Tikki said that she had felt an odd aura around Marinette when they met, and the urge was probably a part of whatever her otherness was.</p><p> </p><p>Marinette walked rather quickly to the park to meet with Hal that day. Recently she had been feeling on edge as if somebody was following her. Watching her. When she finally arrived she greeted her friend with a tense grin and began the easier conversation flow that always came between the two of them.</p><p> </p><p>But she quickly found that she could not relax. Her muscles all felt coiled tightly and her mind was set on edge. Her eyes kept darting around watching the shadows and she began fidgeting restlessly only a few exchanges into the conversation.</p><p> </p><p>Distantly she noticed Hal reacting the same way, but she was more focussed on the approaching threat her senses seemed to perceive.</p><p> </p><p>“You know, you’ve never really talked about your family.” Hal burst out suddenly.</p><p> </p><p>Marinette raised an eyebrow at him but conceded that she hadn’t and decided to answer the unasked question.</p><p> </p><p>“My parents are bakers. They live in Paris where I grew up.”</p><p> </p><p>He blinked at her.</p><p> </p><p>“You’re French?”</p><p> </p><p>“Yeah…?” She drew out the word questioningly.</p><p> </p><p>“I couldn’t tell. Your accent is only noticeable now that I’m listening for it.”</p><p> </p><p>She hummed in reply and surveyed the trees around them uneasily, while he seemed to almost sag in relief. After a moment of silence, he asked,</p><p> </p><p>“By your phrasing, it sounds like they’re still in France, so what brought you to the states on your own? And how old are you anyway?”</p><p> </p><p>“I just turned sixteen, and outside of my parents and mentor life in Paris was not going well for me. My class was openly and actively attacking me and my partner was harassing me with support from everyone around us. I came here to find my birth father.”</p><p> </p><p>He tensed again.</p><p> </p><p>“Birth father?”</p><p> </p><p>“Mmmhmm… I was conceived during a one-night stand. Papa knew about it and has raised me as his own daughter, so I love him like a father, but my environment was just too toxic to remain. I’m hoping my father will let me stay with him for a while, and even if he doesn't I’d just like to meet him, ya know? And you know most people would focus on my trash classmates and their abuse, but you latched onto the fact my Papa isn’t my Father.” She raised an eyebrow in silent question.</p><p> </p><p>He just whimpered and reached out to grip her shoulders. Staring her straight in the eyes and whispering,</p><p> </p><p>“Marinette, there’s something I need to tell you. I was hoping, /praying/ that I was wrong, but I have no doubts anymore. Marinette, what do you know of the Greek gods?”</p><p> </p><p>She stared at him blankly, narrowing her eyes and analyzing his face for any trace of a lie. When she found none, she clenched her fists and squeezed her eyes muttering,</p><p> </p><p>“/Leafhoppers./”</p><p> </p><p>Anything else that either of them could say was cut off by a giant roar sounding out nearby, shaking the ground and startling birds from their trees. Hal’s grip suddenly fell slack as his face turned white, and Marinette took the opportunity to rip herself free and whirl around to face the rapidly approaching beast. It burst quite suddenly from behind the trees, startling her into taking a step back. She caught a quick glimpse of it before ducking and rolling to escape a swipe of it’s paw.</p><p> </p><p>A Chimera.</p><p> </p><p>She was sure of it.</p><p> </p><p>She would have doubted more, but Hal’s question was still in her mind, and everything in her screamed out that that was the answer.</p><p> </p><p>Hal scrambled up from where he had fallen to avoid the Chimera’s claws. He tugged at her arm and gasped out,</p><p> </p><p>“Run… We have to… have to… run. Normal weapons can’t kill it and you don’t have any on you anyway.”</p><p> </p><p>She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, even as she dodged and analyzed the Chimera’s attacks.</p><p> </p><p>“Would a weapon constructed of pure magic work?” She bit out, ducking another swipe.</p><p> </p><p>He blinked at her, gaping.</p><p> </p><p>“Well, yes, but where would you even get one?!”</p><p> </p><p>She simply grinned in response and called out,</p><p> </p><p>“Longg! Arm me!” Suddenly very glad that Master Fu had taught her to summon the kwamiis’ weapons without transforming, or even wearing the Miraculous - perks of being Guardian - rather early on in her Guardian training so she was able to learn the skill and adapt to the energy drain required, so she hardly noticed anymore and was more than capable of taking on this monster.</p><p> </p><p>And really! Even Hawkmoth’s more incompetent akumas had usually caused more damage by now!</p><p> </p><p>She felt Longg’s sword take form in her hand, just in time to block another swipe of the Chimera’s claws. She distantly noticed Hal staring dumbly at the sword with wide eyes as she did a double backflip and scaled a particularly tall tree. Her eyes darted around the clearing - both natural and Chimera-induced - as she cataloged what was available and what she knew of the monster’s attacks so far in order to make a plan worthy of her superhero counterpart.</p><p> </p><p>Five minutes later, a crispy vine-weed that was previously growing in a pine tree (and how she had managed to manipulate it telepathically she wasn’t sure, but she was having some growing realizations about her father), and a few shreds of cloth that used to be Marinette’s shoes, she drove her sword into the beast’s back, right between its wings.</p><p> </p><p>It gave one final shrieking roar and shook around in a pain-induced craze trying to shake her from its back. She grit her teeth and tightened her hold on the sword, pushing it in further yet.</p><p> </p><p>Then it was all over.</p><p> </p><p>The Chimera dissolved into a pile of sulfur, leaving behind a pile of beautiful, glistening red, black, and gold feathers.</p><p> </p><p>Marinette blinked, registering the events that had just taken place, before she suddenly squealed and slapped her hands to her cheeks, Longg’s sword dissolving as soon as her grip on it was released. Her squeal seamed to break Hal out of his stupor and he suddenly turned to her, exclaiming,</p><p> </p><p>“What?! What happened?! Is there another monster?!”</p><p> </p><p>“Hal!! Look at all the /gorgeous/ feathers! Just imagine all the beautiful and unique outfits I can make with these!”</p><p> </p><p>She started crooning and stroking the feathers, plucking them one by one from the pile and smoothing their perfect barbs before setting them aside carefully with a huge smile on her face. Hal just blinked dumbly and started at her bewilderedly.</p><p> </p><p>Linebreak&lt;&gt;kaerbeniL</p><p> </p><p>They ended up walking to some secret-but-safe location that Hal knew of.</p><p> </p><p>It was on Long Island.</p><p> </p><p>They were in Central Park.</p><p> </p><p>She wasn’t wearing shoes - hers having been pulverized by the Chimera.</p><p> </p><p>...She decided she hated Hal.</p><p> </p><p>He’d asked a lot of questions about where the sword came from and who Longg was and how she’d defeated the Chimera so effortlessly. She stubbornly refused to say anything until Tikki flew out of her purse and introduced herself. Tikki explained to the fascinating man - huh. Marinette blinked when had he lost his pants and shoes? So not man, satyr - all about the kwamiis and their magic and the miraculous and Marinette’s role as Guardian. In return - though he insisted he would have had to tell her anyway - Hal told her about the gods and goddesses living above the Empire State building and the wars against the Titans and Giants they’d just finished. He told her about all the demigods and the changes to the camp they were apparently heading to since the wars. He told her about monster regeneration and about how the camp and cabins worked.</p><p> </p><p>The information processing period in Marinette’s brain probably should have taken longer in all honesty, but she was a magical superhero powered by a pocket-sized quasi-god who could create anything from nothing and reverse all structural damage, injuries, and death, who fought a magical supervillain also powered by a pocket-sized quasi-god, this one who possessed people with negative emotions and turned them into giant rage monsters with ridiculous powers and the most atrocious outfits, and his partner the women powered by yet another pocket-sized quasi-god, who was capable of creating giant monsters from the tiniest of objects. She was aided only by her partner, whose pocket-sized quasi-god had wiped out the dinosaurs and caused Pompeii and gave his wielder the ability to completely destroy anything with a single touch. The city she defended actively encouraged her partner’s sexual harassment on her hero persona while turning a blind eye towards or encouraging her abuse by literally everyone publically known to be a part of her life besides her parents.</p><p> </p><p>Things like the Greek myths being real really didn’t surprise her anymore.</p><p> </p><p>When they finally reached Hal’s ‘Camp Halfblood’ they were standing several meters apart and Marinette was glaring daggers into her ex-friend and hissing vows of vengeance with every other sentence. Hal had long ago begun trembling and inching away from her, his voice becoming shakier and shakier the longer they journeyed. But, eventually, they arrived, and Hal ran off as soon as possible to escape his inevitable death.</p><p> </p><p>Unfortunately, this left Marinette standing at the entrance to a strange place full of strangers without a guide. So, with no idea really of where to go and exhausted after her battle with the Chimera and the following trek, she ended up just standing by the tree at the top of the hill and glaring in the direction Hal had run off in.</p><p> </p><p>That was how Percy found her half an hour later: still standing stock still, unaccompanied,  on the hill [hey that rhymes!] and staring off with an ever-deepening glare at nothing in particular.</p><p> </p><p>As soon as he saw her, he was pretty sure he knew who her godly parent was.</p><p> </p><p>He jogged up to her with a friendly smile and wave.</p><p> </p><p>“Hey!” He said as he reached her. “You new? My name’s Percy. What’s your name? And how’d you get here: parental instructions or a satyr guide?”</p><p> </p><p>As soon as he began speaking, her head snapped to him and her glare vanished, morphing easily into a sunny smile.</p><p> </p><p>He was starting to doubt her parentage.</p><p> </p><p>“Hi! Yes, I’m new. My name’s Marinette! And I did have a satyr but he abandoned me as soon as we arrived. You don’t happen to know a satyr named Hal who day-lights as a park ranger in Central Park, do you? I have to murder him in the most horrid fashion imaginable and then obliterate his remains until not even dust is left.” As she spoke, a dark shadow seemed to enshroud her face as her eyes narrowed at her smile grew positively vicious. For a moment, he could even swear her eyes turned purple.</p><p> </p><p>And just like that Percy was back to his former certainty on her parentage, though he wasn’t sure what the purple was about.</p><p> </p><p>“I… have not…” He said carefully, eyeing her lack of weaponry - not that that would stop a particularly determined and/or desperate demigod, as he well knew - and blinking when he noticed her lack of footwear. “Might I ask why?”</p><p> </p><p>“You may!” She answered cheerfully, still smiling with a grin that would invoke jealousy in Apollo.</p><p> </p><p>He waited a few moments for her to answer before prompting,</p><p> </p><p>“Why?”</p><p> </p><p>She blinked at him as if in surprise before replying,</p><p> </p><p>“I never said I would answer, just that you could ask!”</p><p> </p><p>He sighed and rubbed a hand down his face before turning to lead her back to the big house to introduce her to Chiron and Mr. D. The whole way there she skipped along happily next to him and answered his questions, humming in response to a few useful tips about camp and when he pointed out which buildings they passed, and occasionally asking questions of her own.</p><p> </p><p>By the time they reached the front porch where Annabeth was discussing plans for one of the new planned temples with Jason and Chiron, there was a solid meter of space between Percy and who he swore was the most terrifying child of Ares he’d ever encountered. She acted so cheerful and innocent and pure and sugary and all the other good adjectives, but he could easily tell by through the small amount of time they’d spent together that underneath it all was someone who was in no way afraid - you might even say eager - to cause some serious mayhem and pain.</p><p> </p><p>He shuddered just thinking about what this sweet-seeming girl could do if given the chance and resources.</p><p> </p><p>His girlfriend noticed him first, interrupting Jason’s question to straighten up and greet him.</p><p> </p><p>“Hey, Seaweed Brain! What are you doing?”</p><p> </p><p>“Showing the new girl around. This is Marinette.”</p><p> </p><p>The three (Chiron, Annabeth, and Jason) all blinked at him dumbly before glancing at Marinette, who he’d managed to separate from by several more feet.</p><p> </p><p>“But…” Jason finally asked. “Why is she all the way over there? How can you show her around with so much space between you?”</p><p> </p><p>Percy just shook his head frantically and refused to answer, garnering raised eyebrows from his girlfriend, cousin, and mentor.</p><p> </p><p>Marinette waved cheerfully as she skipped up to them.</p><p> </p><p>“Nice to meet you, I’m Marinette!” She beamed.</p><p> </p><p>Annabeth watched her calculatingly, trying to see what about this girl had made her boyfriend - who fought in two wars of the gods as one of the main fighters and survived and escaped Tartarus sane, even after seeing the void in its truest form - so terrified of her.</p><p> </p><p>Chiron merely greeted her warmly, saying,</p><p> </p><p>“Hello, Marinette. My name is Chiron, I’m the activities director here at Camp Halfblood. These are two of my students, Annabeth and Jason.” He said, nodding at each of them in turn to indicate who he was speaking about - though she would have figured it out easily on her own, the gesture was appreciated.</p><p> </p><p>“Did you have a-” He tried to continue, only to be cut off by Percy mid-sentence, waving his arms in a frantic ‘shut-up’ motion and yelling out,</p><p> </p><p>“Don’t!”</p><p> </p><p>Unfortunately, it was already too late.</p><p> </p><p>“Did I have a satyr guide?” Marinette asked sweetly, tilting her head to the side. “ Oh yes!” She smirked, her narrowed eyes becoming ablaze with purple fire and her voice growing dark. “I did indeed have a satyr guide. If you would kindly just point me in the direction of Hal the Central Park Park Ranger, I’ll go destroy him and we can continue this conversation afterward.”</p><p> </p><p>Chiron’s eyebrows raised and he appraised his new charge carefully, already having a pretty good idea of who her parent was, though his thoughts were different from Percy’s.</p><p> </p><p>Speaking of Percy, as soon as he had realized he was too late in stopping the question of her guide, he had run off to find somewhere safe to hide in for a few… days. Maybe a couple of weeks, just to be safe.</p><p> </p><p>Meanwhile, Annabeth and Jason both took a step back, starting to understand Percy’s fears regarding this tiny teen.</p><p> </p><p>Linebreak&lt;&gt;kaerbeniL</p><p> </p><p>After Chiron had refused to direct her towards Hal so that she could enact her vengeance, the three of them - Annabeth had gone to drag her idiotic boyfriend out from wherever it was he had stashed himself - all sat down at the table the plans for the Temple of Tyche had been being discussed upon just a short while previously (and Marinette couldn’t help but smirk internally when she heard whose temple the plans were for) so Marinette could answer some basic questions that every new camper had to suffer through.</p><p> </p><p>Through this process, Jason and Chiron learned that her mother was Chinese (Jason muttered something about a Frank when he heard this) and her Papa was French. She told them she had been conceived by a stranger after a night out during her Maman and Papa’s honeymoon: both parents had been fully knowledgeable of and involved in the conception process (and Jason had looked mildly disturbed when she explained all of this in a perfectly normal tone and straight face). She explained how her parents had tracked down her father through the use of his name and rumors over the years, and that they’d never reached out to him but had written down plenty of documentation proving she was his daughter should she ever decide to attempt to track him down and meet him. Like she was now.</p><p> </p><p>She also gave them a vague overview of her situation back in Paris that led to her deciding to take advantage of a wealthy relative’s offer of sponsoring her trip to meet her father.</p><p> </p><p>Chiron had explained the rules regarding the gods and their children, though he mentioned he had a feeling things would end up working out differently for her. She hadn’t asked why, already getting the feeling that being mysterious and vague was just kinda Chiron’s thing. Jason hadn’t said anything either, probably already resigned to the fact he wouldn’t get a straight answer if the centaur said anything more on the matter at all.</p><p> </p><p>Another satyr had shown up at some point and kept staring at her in a mixture of awe and fear. He offered to take her to the Hermes cabin where she would be staying until her godly parent claimed her - as she had refused to divulge his name and as Chiron had explained it wouldn’t have mattered anyway without a formal claiming - but assured her she probably wouldn’t stay long as she was nearly four years over the age the gods had vowed to claim their children by.</p><p> </p><p>It was as she was standing up to follow this new satyr to the Hermes cabin - and not so subtly gain the whereabouts of Hal - that Mr. D. came out of the big house, already complaining to Chiron about something.</p><p> </p><p>Only to stop mid-sentence and stare at Marinette. His gaze drifted over her before they locked eyes, her own darkening to purple to match his, though the fire of her anger was absent.</p><p> </p><p>The satyr watched them tensely, his eyes darting between the two anxiously. Chiron was watching the events unfolding before him with an unreadable expression, and Jason just looked confused.</p><p> </p><p>After a while of this, Marinette broke the uncomfortable silence they had found themselves in.</p><p> </p><p>“Dionysus, I presume.” She said with an arched eyebrow.</p><p> </p><p>“Do be careful with names, child. They hold great power.” He hummed, though a faint smile tugged threateningly at the corner of his mouth. “And you would be Tom and Sabine’s daughter, I suppose. You’re nearly the spitting image of her, though I can definitely see traces of myself.”</p><p> </p><p>Marinette ignored the sounds of Jason and the satyr-who’s-name-she’d-promptly-forgotten behind her choking on air to beam up at her father.</p><p> </p><p>“My name’s Marinette!”</p><p> </p><p>“It’s nice to meet you, Marinette. Tell me: Why do you have a piece of godly essence in your pocket, child?”</p><p> </p><p>Before she could respond, Tikki flew out to hover before the group.</p><p> </p><p>“Hello, Sir! My name’s Tikki, and I’m the kwamii of good fortune and creation!”</p><p> </p><p>Her father raised his eyebrows as he studied the little quasi god.</p><p> </p><p>“Fascinating.” He murmured. “And what exactly is it you do?”</p><p> </p><p>“I’m tied to the Miraculous of the Ladybug, a jewel capable of restoring everything from a battle that another miraculous participates in, even deaths are undone by my power. I am just one of many kwamiis and Miraculous, there is one for each of the Chinese zodiac and then the higher tier which contains five more, and then the highest tier, containing my counterpart and myself. When Plagg, the kwamii of bad luck and destruction, and I are wielded together, the user has the power to rewrite reality itself and even change the timeline or make themselves immortal or all-powerful. Right now in Paris, two of the middle-tier kwamiis are being abused and used for evil purposes, Marinette and her partner - who wields Plagg - are actively fighting them and the monsters they create nearly every day. Or well, they were until Chat Noir stopped helping because of his immaturity.”</p><p> </p><p>The god looked stunned for a moment before snorting.</p><p> </p><p>“Zeus isn’t going to be happy about that.” He smirked. “And based on your presence here I’m assuming my daughter is your current wielder?”</p><p> </p><p>“Yes and know, Sir. Marinette is my current wielder, yes, but she is also the Guardian of all inactive Miraculous, so the Miracle box containing the other Kwamiis had to come here with her. It was left back at her hotel today because we weren’t expecting to go anywhere other than Central Park.”</p><p> </p><p>He scanned Marinette again thoughtfully.</p><p> </p><p>“Would you mind showing me how this… Miraculous… works, My Daughter?”</p><p> </p><p>Marinette blinked before nodding eagerly and calling forth her transformation. During this, Chiron had managed to break Jason and the satyr from their stupors and shooed them away, before he himself went to inspect the archery lessons currently taking place so as in order to give the god and his daughter time alone.</p><p> </p><p>As the light from her transformation faded, Marinette watched her father’s eyes climb higher and higher on his face. He sat almost elegantly in Jason’s abandoned seat and gestured for her to retake her seat across from him. Once they were both seated, he clasped his hands together and rest his elbows on the table, leaning forward slightly as his eyes swept over her, taking in the magic encasing her - though it showed itself to mortals as her superhero costume, as a god he was able to see it as it truly was: pure magic.</p><p> </p><p>“Fascinating.” He whispered. “Absolutely extraordinary. With Tikki’s magic cloaking you, my divine sight perceives you as a goddess.”</p><p> </p><p>Marinette blinked at him for a moment, utterly stunned by his statement.</p><p> </p><p>“A… a what?” She asked faintly.</p><p> </p><p>“A goddess,” he repeated, amusement coloring his tone. “And one with the power to rival The Big Three, if I’m not mistaken.”</p><p> </p><p>“What?” She barely registered herself saying.</p><p> </p><p>His amusement had clearly grown as he responded, a weird cross between a smirk and a genuine smile growing on his face.</p><p> </p><p>“You have the ability - if I understand correctly - to create anything from nothing and raise countless dead to their true states as if they had never died, without messing with Thanatos’ list. You also erase all of the damage - which sounds like is probably a great deal, you are fighting a war after all - and heal all injuries. You are essentially rewinding time while keeping memory intact and without changing time outside of your city. Less like rewinding, and more like erasing completely. If not for the memories, its as if the battle never took place. To do anything of that magnitude, the Council - consisting of twelve gods and goddesses - and even several others would need to combine their power. That’s not even touching on the fact that you hold one half of an artifact with power that only Chaos contains.”</p><p> </p><p>Marinette swallowed, barely letting out a small, weak,</p><p> </p><p>“Ah.”</p><p> </p><p>Her father smiled assuredly at her.</p><p> </p><p>“I’m proud of you, My Child.”</p><p> </p><p>Linebreak&lt;&gt;kaerbeniL</p><p> </p><p>She didn’t make many friends at camp because everyone was too scared of her. At first, it was because of who her father was: the campers didn’t like Dionysus, but he was still the god of madness and director of the camp, and the satyrs worshipped her father and really weren’t entirely sure of what to think of her. Of course, then, as they always tend to do, the rumors began spreading around. Everyone learned shockingly quickly - which it really shouldn’t have been that surprising, the nymphs were the most terrible gossips and the Aphrodite campers weren’t much better, even under Piper’s leadership - and before long everyone knew that even /The Percy Jackson/ was so scared of her that even /The Annabeth Chase/ couldn’t drag him back out. And if that wasn’t enough, so too spread her threats towards Hal. And then Hal disappeared. Needless to say, her time at camp was pretty lonely beside her daily visits to Chiron, her father, and the kwamiis - her father had taken her to retrieve them, though they stayed in the big house so as to avoid detection by the other campers and gods.</p><p> </p><p>Towards the end of her time in the States, she met the Maenads. She absolutely adored them, and they loved her in return. She was quickly adopted as an honorary Maenad, both because of who her father was but also because of herself. When away from the eyes of others besides the kwamiis, her father, and the Maenads, she let herself follow the instincts she had long squished and recently learned were probably her godly heritage. Her eyes turned purple, alight with flames when angry or particularly crazy due to dance, party, or wine (which she definitely wasn’t drinking, what on Earth are you talking about? Don’t you know she’s underage? She is the picture of responsible.) and she went just as wild as some of the crazier Maenads. She also grew into and learned to control her powers. She had gotten a great deal from her father, definitely more than any of his previous children, he and Tikki theorized it was due to her influence. It turned out she had some control over vine plants, along with the ability to create phantoms and induce madness. She also had the ability to turn any liquid into wine, which she thought was pretty awesome but not as much as the others.</p><p> </p><p>Her brother Pollux joined them once at one of their parties in the woods. They hadn’t really spoken much, he was always off alone and seemed incredibly withdrawn, never speaking unless spoken to and even then in short clipped sentences until left alone. Tikki explained it as the trauma of loss, and afterward she managed to corner an older camper from the Apollo cabin who stammered out a brief explanation of their brother Castor dying in The Second Titan War. She begged her father to let her use the kitchen after that and started leaving freshly baked macarons at her brother’s bedside every morning.</p><p> </p><p>Her father caved rather easily, already protective of the powerful, precious daughter who was so like him he couldn’t help but love her. His only request was she experiment and find a way to make alcohol-free, wine-flavored macarons (to get past his father’s restrictions), which she was /more than/ delighted to do, clearly having inherited his taste for the beverage he had created.</p><p> </p><p>Pollux slowly started becoming more friendly with her; coming up to sit with her silently at random times throughout the day for really no reason at all, attending more of her midnight parties in the woods with the Maenads - even if he tended to just watch from the edge, and sometimes - though rarely - engaging in soft conversations about Paris.</p><p> </p><p>She was satisfied with the progress, silently vowing to make even more headway the next time she visited.</p><p> </p><p>Linebreak&lt;&gt;kaerbeniL</p><p> </p><p>Eventually, she did have to return to Paris.</p><p> </p><p>Always using Kaalki to reach Akuma attacks was taking a toll on both of them, her especially due to the time difference and her new-found desire to party at all hours or else pass out somewhere.</p><p> </p><p>Besides, she knew she would have to face everyone again at some point since she left her classmates without explanation.</p><p> </p><p>And she missed her parents. She loved her father, but he wasn’t her Maman or Papa.</p><p> </p><p>Linebreak&lt;&gt;kaerbeniL</p><p> </p><p>As she suspected, Lila had spun some story to explain her absence, and everyone, even Mlle. Bustier and M. Damocles had believed it without question and hadn’t even bothered to check with her parents.</p><p> </p><p>Apparently, she - a just-recently-turned sixteen years old who was the most helpful, responsible girl you’d ever meet BL (Before Lila) - had run off with the sugar daddy she’d met online and slept with after four messages. Four.</p><p> </p><p>She was disgusted by the very thought of it and decided to just avoid her classmates, except to glare at them with purple eyes - which seemed to have permanently changed after all the time partying and using her powers with her father and his Maenads - from across the room.</p><p> </p><p>Not that anyone noticed her eyes had changed, or that she had herself, as they were too busy making snide remarks about how it was only a matter of time before her sugar daddy tired of her and threw her out like the trash she was. Adrien, through all of this, simply watched her with disappointed eyes and the occasional disgusted glance of his own. Clearly, even he was believing the liar now.</p><p> </p><p>She refused to let it bother her.</p><p> </p><p>She was Marinette.</p><p> </p><p>She was Ladybug.</p><p> </p><p>She was the daughter of Dionysus.</p><p> </p><p>She was so much better than all of them.</p><p> </p><p>Linebreak&lt;&gt;kaerbeniL</p><p> </p><p>She was doing quite well, all things considered.</p><p> </p><p>Her classmates seemed too disgusted with her to really interact outside of what was forced upon them in class, and it was great to reconnect with her parents. What’s more, Luka, Kagami, and /Chloe/ had approached her concerning the rumors and searching for the truth themselves.</p><p> </p><p>The four of them had become great friends, even with Marinette’s more… homicidal tendencies showing themselves more often.</p><p> </p><p>It turned out Kagami’s grandfather was Takemikazuchi, the Japanese god of storms and swords. After learning that, a lot about Kagami and her mother suddenly made a lot more sense.</p><p> </p><p>Luka was the son of the Roman Apollo, but he had never been to Camp Jupiter and didn’t know anything about it other than the fact it existed and how to get there.</p><p> </p><p>Chloe didn’t have any divine blood, but her mother had been blessed by Freya, the Norse goddess of love, before Chloe’s birth and a bit of that blessing had been passed to her.</p><p> </p><p>The three of them understood having divine attributes, and so they understood that violence was just a part of who Marinette was now. Besides, it gave her and Kagami something to bond over, Luka said it made her even more interesting than she had been, and Chloe was glad she wasn’t such a pushover anymore.</p><p> </p><p>Linebreak&lt;&gt;kaerbeniL</p><p> </p><p>Ladybug’s magic returned her eyes to their former blue state when transformed, but even the Miraculous magic could not hide the fire that erupted with her anger.</p><p> </p><p>She now fought alone, as Chat had stopped showing up at all after she turned her flame-filled eyes on him during a particularly difficult battle when he was proving more annoying than normal. Plagg showed up a couple fights later when it was evident that Chat Noir wasn’t coming back and told her Chat’s identity - the Guardian magic mixing with her demigod magic and rendering the protection spell null - and she found she really wasn’t surprised. Only a coward such as Areste could be the horrible hero that Chat Noir was.</p><p> </p><p>That night, she broke in in the night and stole away the ring. Before she left, she turned to look at the boy who had once been her greatest friend and love. She shook her head with disgust before turning once more to leave. She paused, turning a considering look to the boy sleeping peacefully before her.</p><p> </p><p>It wouldn’t take too much, the loss of his ring combined with his upbringing and restrictions would no doubt push him close to edge as it was. Plus, he deserved it, with how he acted towards her both as a hero and as a civilian.</p><p> </p><p>With a smirk and eyes of fire, she sent a pulse of power towards him, watching with satisfaction as his brow furrowed and he shifted uncomfortably before she leaped through the window.</p><p> </p><p>Linebreak&lt;&gt;kaerbeniL     MINOR TRIGGER WARNINGS AND MENTION OF INSANITY</p><p> </p><p>Adrien Agreste didn’t show up at school the next day. Or the next. Or the next.</p><p> </p><p>At first, everyone just waved it off as a big, unexpected modeling gig.</p><p> </p><p>But he never came back.</p><p> </p><p>And they never hear anything from Nathalie.</p><p> </p><p>And nobody came asking about his homework and notes from the classwork he missed.</p><p> </p><p>It quickly became evident that something was wrong.</p><p> </p><p>Just over a month after, Nadia Chamak ran a program on the sudden, unexpected submission of popular teen model Arien Agreste to a mental facility.</p><p> </p><p>His father and his assistant were on record saying that he had been perfectly fine when he went to bed one night, if not acting spooked as he had been for a week or two, and the next morning woke up asking after a cat he’d never had but seemed convinced he had. The two went on to mention how he had gotten progressively worse, and when they had brought in doctors and other professionals, it had all snowballed.</p><p> </p><p>Eventually, they were forced to admit defeat and send him to a facility where he could get the proper help he needed.</p><p> </p><p>The doctors and technicians at the unnamed facility where the young Agreste now resided reported that he was frequently caught talking to himself, searching for a cat he seemed convinced he’d once owned (and he claimed had talked back and only ate expensive cheeses - this admission had actually made /Gabriel Agrest/ cry because he was convinced he should have noticed something going on with his son sooner, as the boy had randomly started smelling like camembert which he carried with him everywhere several years prior), and crying out about blue flames devouring him whole.</p><p> </p><p>The country’s teenage girls and even some adults mourned the loss of the former model, their class more than anyone. But, while they mourned who their former friend and crush used to be, The four friends felt nothing. They did not shed a single tear. And nobody noticed how Marinette grinned vindictively when she heard the news.</p><p> </p><p>Linebreak&lt;&gt;kaerbeniL</p><p> </p><p>It was Luka who guessed she did it.</p><p> </p><p>He was reading a book on Greek Mythology for class when he happened upon a chapter about Dionysus. He paid extra close attention, due to his friendship with the god’s daughter, and recognized some of the things he read about.</p><p> </p><p>In the story of Dionysus and Lykourgos, the god drove the man who spited him mad with hallucinations. He then took the life from the crops of the man’s kingdom and it was decreed that nothing would grow, and so the man’s own people took him and tied his limbs to horses and had him quartered.</p><p> </p><p>In the story of Dionysus and Pentheus, the god turned all the woman in Thebes into his rabid followers - the Maenads - and tricked the man who spited him into coming among his followers where he was literally torn apart - alive - by his mother and wife and the other Maenads.</p><p> </p><p>In the story of Dionysus and the pirates, the god was taken captive and drove his captors to what surely would have been their suicide - had they not turned to dolphins - using hallucinations.</p><p> </p><p>He confronted her about it one day when the four of them were at lunch together.</p><p> </p><p>She did not deny it.</p><p> </p><p>Luka, Kagami, and Chloe had all taken a moment to process before the blonde had shrugged and taken a sip of her honey-lemon tea. The other two had both followed suit, relaxing rather quickly and just accepting her.</p><p> </p><p>She was their friend, and they had no doubt he deserved it. Marinette’s godly blood certainly influenced her in rather… interesting ways, but at her core, she was still Marinette. She would not hurt somebody, much less destroy them as she had Adrien, unless they truly earned her hatred.</p><p> </p><p>Linebreak&lt;&gt;kaerbeniL</p><p> </p><p>More time passed.</p><p> </p><p>Hawkmoth had called a meeting with her. She gave her three friends each a Miraculous: to Chloe, the fox - for she could no longer be Queen Bee after revealing her identity and Marinette deemed a fox necessary for the battle but refused to trust Alya. To Luka, the snake - as he had done so well with it the last time and she knew that his ability to rewind time could come in handy. To Kagami, the dragon - for even if Hawmoth knew her identity, knowing the Japanese girl’s heritage told Marinette there was no other Miraculous she could possibly use as well.</p><p> </p><p>She also decided to take a chance and trust Alix, who through careful observation seemed to only be pretending to go along with Lila. A few carefully worded questions proved this theory, while also providing concrete evidence that she was afraid of losing the few friends - and freedoms said friends gave her - she had. For the first time in their time period, Bunnyx was seen without traveling back from the future.</p><p> </p><p>Her team and her met with Hawkmoth and Mayura on the pool deck of Chloe’s hotel.</p><p> </p><p>Their cautionary measures turned out to be for naught, as Hawkmoth stunned them all by handing over the Miraculouses and showing himself to be Gabriel Agreste and Mayura to be Nathalie Sancoeur.</p><p> </p><p>He explained brokenly that he had just wanted to save his wife, but he realized now that instead he should have been focussed on being a better father for Adrien. He said that he had planned on using the Miraculous to both bring back Emilie and heal his son, but he had come to the realization that Hawkmoth might have been a big part of what broke his son, especially if his growing suspicions of Chat Noir’s identity had any truth to them.</p><p> </p><p>They parted ways then: A broken man and his dying assistant who could have been more and five teenagers finally realizing that the war was over and they were free.</p><p> </p><p>Bunnyx questioned if they were really just going to let the terrorists go unpunished, but it was Luka who stated that they were being punished enough. Their own guilt and the misuse of the two Miraculous, one of which was broken, combined with Adrien’s mental state would slowly destroy them.</p><p> </p><p>Linebreak&lt;&gt;kaerbeniL</p><p> </p><p>Juleka might have fallen prey to Lila's stories and manipulations, but she was still Luka’s half-sister and Alix’s friend.</p><p> </p><p>So, when Lila’s carefully worded and placed comments drove Juleka to recede back into herself and give up her dreams of modeling, the two of them were understandably upset. For the first time in a long time, Alix approached Marinette with tear-filled eyes and begged for help.</p><p> </p><p>Marinette judged her ex-friend’s words and intentions as truthful and good, and she took pity on her rabbit.</p><p> </p><p>Alix joined the four friends for lunch that day, and every day after that. After a few weeks, she was brought into the fold regarding their divine secret, and not much longer afterward their Miraculous secret.</p><p> </p><p>The team was now complete outside of their masks.</p><p>TRIGGER WARNINGS ESCALATE</p><p>But Juleka was getting worse.</p><p> </p><p>Marinette had refused to act on anything until Juleka approached her herself, or things escalated.</p><p> </p><p>Things escalated.</p><p> </p><p>One night, Juleka was supposed to be at a sleepover with Rose, when instead she had come home sobbing. Marinette happened to be there at the time, and she offered a shoulder and an ear.</p><p> </p><p>This needed to stop.</p><p> </p><p>Lila had apparently convinced Rose that Juleka was only the pink-loving girl’s friend so she could learn all of her secrets and laugh at her behind her back. After all, how could two people so different /possibly/ really be friends?</p><p> </p><p>Rose had screamed at the gothic girl before slamming the door, catching Juleka’s fingers which she had extended to try and plead for a chance to tell the truth.</p><p> </p><p>Marinette went home that night planning a few phantoms to summon and scare Lila a bit.</p><p> </p><p>The next morning Luka arrived in tears at her door at way-too-early o’clock, pale-faced and out of breath.</p><p> </p><p>Juleka had commit suicide last night.</p><p> </p><p>She left a note.</p><p> </p><p>It seemed the bullying and mean remarks and exclusions had been going on for a lot longer than they realized, and by all of their classmates. Rose had just been the last to leave <br/>her friend.</p><p> </p><p>An hour after Marinette received the news, Paris wondered if Hawkmoth had truly been defeated when Alix’s screams of denial and emotional pain echoed throughout the city.</p><p> </p><p>When Marinette walked into class that day, her eyes were ablaze with purple fire, the flames raging more than ever before.</p><p> </p><p>A sane person would have run as far away in the opposite direction as they could. An observant person would have noticed the normally sweet blue-eyed girl had purple flames for eyes. A smart person would have tried to find the target of her fury and punished them before she could.</p><p> </p><p>Unfortunately, her principal, teacher, and classmates aside from Chloe and Alix, were not sane, observant, nor smart.</p><p> </p><p>Linebreak&lt;&gt;kaerbeniL       TRIGGER WARNINGS INCREASE, SERIOUS MENTIONS OF INSANITY, MINOR MENTIONS OF VIOLENCE, CHARACTER DEATH COMMON</p><p> </p><p>For centuries after, people would whisper of The Akuma Class.</p><p> </p><p>They said that the class was so volatile, that they attracted so many akumas, the dark magic festered in them and took hold of their minds. They said that the teacher and principal, the enablers who allowed it to continue without investigation or attempts to split the problematic class apart, were caught by the blow in penance for what they had allowed to brew.</p><p> </p><p>They say that once the dark magic took hold, there was no hope for the class and enablers.</p><p> </p><p>They say the magic drove them insane: they all hallucinated monsters, two of them even spoke to no one and searched for animals - the girl a fox and the boy a turtle - much like the Agreste boy.</p><p> </p><p>One girl saw monsters everywhere she looked, she took her own life to escape the terror.</p><p> </p><p>They said her boyfriend continued to search for her, even after proof of her death and attending her funeral, denying she had died. They said one day started speaking to her as if she was still there. He died alone under a bridge.</p><p> </p><p>Two boys were driven mad by competition. One was convinced he was the best athlete there ever was and, in his determination to prove it, worked himself to death - never stopping to eat or sleep or just take a break. The other thought he was the smartest man in the world. He set out to create the ultimate antivirus program and instead created a chain reaction that caused an explosion in his computer. His family took his comatose body off of life support after three years.</p><p> </p><p>They said the red-haired boy almost escaped unscathed, but he swore the plants moved. His mother took him on a trip to a winery just outside of the city limits, and they had to leave when he started screaming about the grapevines attacking him. The would have been the end of it, but his paranoia grew and he began to see other plants reaching for him as well. He died in the fire he set to destroy a greenhouse in Versailles.</p><p> </p><p>One girl, the police chief’s daughter, spent the rest of her life in her parent’s home. Her visions convinced her she was a dog. Her parents refused to institutionalize her, so they instead watched with broken hearts as their daughter spent her days as a common household pet. She died when she got outside and tried to chase a car.</p><p> </p><p>Another girl was actually executed by a foreign government. She became convinced she was married to Prince Ali of Achu, insisting she had photos and everything. All she ever brought forward was blank papers and scrappy old newspapers with topics of no importance. Her delusions showed her her greatest wish, and her stubbornness and determination turned her into a threat that had to be eliminated by the prince’s security team.</p><p> </p><p>They say one boy, the turtle boy, thought he was a great warrior. He ‘saved’ many fellow patients at the institute from ‘certain death’ by destroying the vacuum cleaner, multiple sinks, and even a few doors. He was eventually declared a danger to himself and those around him and euthanized.</p><p> </p><p>The last four got it the worst. The Catalyst. The Driver. The Encourager. The Ignorant.</p><p> </p><p>The Ignorant was the principal. He was said not to have truly known what was going on in the classroom, but instead of investigating the concerns and reports given to him, he turned a blind eye. They said he focussed on his own dreams of being a superhero instead of on his duty to his students. They said he didn’t do his job right and made accommodations for a false illness without verifying it with a guardian or doctor. His delusions convinced him he wielded a Miraculous and was finally the hero he’d always dreamed of. He died when he rushed into a burning building without any sort of protection in his attempts at heroism.</p><p> </p><p>The Encourager was the teacher. Instead of stopping the obvious bullying, she punished the victim and accommodated the bully. She preached about good examples and doing the right thing, but she never did herself. She heard voices of all her previous students, calling her out for all her wrongs. They say she drove the knife through her heart after a vision of teary blue-bell eyes framed bye blue-black pigtails.</p><p> </p><p>The Driver was a student, like many of the others. She listened to The Catalyst and drove home the pain inflicted. She was the one who passed lies as facts, and who isolated and bullied her classmates on the orders of the liar. She was the one who threw the others into a frenzy at the smallest thing. The Catalyst shed a single tear, and The Driver riled up everybody around them to enact vengeance on any minuscule perceived threat. She was the fox girl, and she spent the rest of her long, long life looking ever-more-desperately for her fox. She was driven slowly and slowly further into madness as her endless search remained fruitless. She grew more frenzied as time went on, and ended up killing four patients and a guard in her escape from the hospital. A manhunt was sent out for her, but she was never found. Not until decades later, when she was found near-rabid living in a cave decorated with rotting fox skeletons. She died of natural causes soon after.</p><p> </p><p>The Catalyst was the liar. She was a student like the others, but she was what caused the dominoes to topple. Her arrival knocked the pieces out of alignment and into the places they fell that resulted in this haunting tale. She was the catalyst for it all. They say that, when she came, she brought with her amazing stories and connections. And everyone believed her. They say she lied and manipulated her ‘friends’ until they’d been driven apart from each other and the dark magic took hold. The rest of her days were spent being tormented by all manners of phantoms. She saw past victims come back from the grave to taunt her. She saw her lies being unraveled in so many different ways. She saw the people she lied about screaming at her. She saw her mother’s disappointed look. These things and so may more, haunted her. She lived longer than any other, they say so she could suffer longer. She finally died when she drowned herself in the bath, the letter left behind stating she’d finally repented and wished to join those she’d lost. She had long since lost her mind and been institutionalized.</p><p> </p><p>But one thing all of them had in common was this: they were all caught screaming about the purple flames. In weak moments, tired moments, random moments throughout the day, they would break down and sob and scream about the haunting purple flames.</p><p> </p><p>Many people said it was a sign of the akumas that had twisted and destroyed them. Others said some sort of demon was searching for revenge or to fulfill a vendetta. Either way, the purple flames remained until each one’s last breath. Every one of them’s last words were an apology to the purple flames that had haunted them throughout their insanity.</p><p> </p><p>The legends all forgot about four of the classmates, though.</p><p> </p><p>The blonde girl who was the first bully, but was pushed aside in favor of another and repented her past wrongdoings. She was forgiven by her ex-victim, and so was spared the wrath.</p><p> </p><p>The pink-haired girl who followed along until it proved too much to bear. She, too, went groveling for forgiveness, and so too was spared the wrath.</p><p> </p><p>The black-haired girl with a purple streak and shy demeanor was already dead. The Catalyst and The Driver and their sheeple all proved to be more than she could handle. She took her life and was the first of her classmates to die.</p><p> </p><p>The last was a girl who once seemed innocent, but whose eyes now burned with purple fire. It was her wrath on behalf of her lost friend that sealed the fate of that class.</p><p> </p><p>For centuries after, people would whisper of The Akuma Class. It was a ghost story, a cautionary tale, a truth that long faded to myth. But they didn’t whisper of the Childe of Madness, whose wrath immortalized her enemies as legends of what not to do.</p><p> </p><p>In the end, those who knew the truth knew that Marinette had /truly/ taken a page from her father’s book.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Epilogue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After she cursed her class, Marinette approached her family about moving away from Paris. She wanted to get away from where all the bad things in her life had taken place. They agreed.</p><p> </p><p>Tom and Sabine managed to gain support from Dionysus in order to gain permission to open a bakery in New Athens - the village the Greeks had created with inspiration from their Roman counterparts, located in a rather large field near the camp. The small family moved there, and the bakery quickly became very popular among the demigods, satyrs, nymphs, spirits, and even a few gods. Marinette began attending camp full time, easily able to visit her parents due to their proximity. She became Aphrodite’s personal designer after the goddess saw some of her sketches. She never married, but she found herself as a sort of mother figure to the children of Tyche.</p><p> </p><p>Luka and his mother mourned Juleka together, but their grief took a toll on them in very different ways. They acknowledged they loved each other, but they could no longer continue to live together. Luka finally went to Camp Jupiter and found himself never wanting to leave. He met a rather lovely daughter of Mars and settled in New Rome with her, only ever leaving to visit his friends in New York.</p><p> </p><p>Chloe finally took her mother’s offer of moving to New York. She visited the Dupain-Chengs in New Athens every other weekend and made extra trips out when Luka was in town. She never married either, but she did adopt a little girl named Bella, whose father was her neighbor before an untimely accident ended his life. She took over her father’s hotel when he retired, but she operated it from a distance, through the use of video-calls and proxy, never returning to Paris.</p><p> </p><p>Kagami’s mother took her back to Japan. They kept in contact through excessive letter-sending and bi-yearly visits. She ended up marrying a (living) Norse demigod she met on one such visit. She did become the Olympic champion her mother had always dreamed, but afterward, she put away the fencing saber for good, instead teaching more traditional fighting styles at a small dojo.</p><p> </p><p>And this is where our story ends. A tale that reminds you why Dionysus is truly to be feared. Myths tell of his wrath upon non-believers and those who spite him. Here, his daughter shows the same traits.</p><p> </p><p>You must also always remember, that wine is never to be underestimated. It seems innocent enough: a beautiful, rich color, a beloved taste, an elegant lifestyle. People love wine. But underneath that, it is a dangerous drug. Wine contains alcohol. It makes you drunk. Drunk you has musher lower inhibitions, memory blanks, and a stupid idea generator. No-longer-drunk you has a horrible, lasting headache. More than that, wine has a huge following. It is a collector’s item. It is the sole purpose for some people’s travels. It is the source of many an income.</p><p> </p><p>At first glance, much like Marinette, Daughter of Dionysus, wine is a sweet, wonderful thing. But beneath that lurks something dangerous. In moderation, wine is good. Too much can destroy you.</p><p> </p><p>Never forget this lesson. Dionysus was one of the most underestimated gods, but also one of the most dangerous. The Ancient Greeks told stories of why you should never anger a god, and even Dionysus was a god. He controlled madness. Why ever would you cross him? And Marinette Dupain-Cheng was his daughter, who inherited his control of madness. If you would not cross him, why would you cross her?</p><p> </p><p>Remember, the innocent can hide dangerous secrets. Never underestimate the small and sweet. There might just be a monster inside, just waiting to unleash its wrath on you.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I realized as I'm posting this that I almost made the second half of the epilogue seem like a compare contrast essay. Oops.</p><p>My point stands though: Wine seems innocent but its a lot more sinister than you might realize.</p><p>I don't personally have anything /against/ wine, exactly, but it does control a lot and can make you drunk. Drunk people do a lot of stupid things and can lose their memory.<br/>Also: Hangovers.</p><p>I tried to make Marinette's character make more sense by comparing her to wine since she's the daughter of the wine god in this story.</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Right, so, a few things to mention...</p><p>I’d like to say I’m sorry about what happened to Hal, but that would be a lie because I’m not. At all. Originally, I did plan for him to be a friend and whatever, but the characters had a different idea. He did it to himself, really. I was all for him and Marinette continuing their friendship at camp, but suddenly I found him making her walk a huge distance barefoot and abandoning her upon arrival. I didn’t mean for it to happen, he did it to himself. Her reaction was really inevitable considering her parentage, and I’m glad in the end because it helped establish her how I wanted.<br/>           For more on Hal You'll have to read the outtake.</p><p>I completely forgot about the feathers. I had all these plans for them, I think her designing and the feathers and her smile were going to convince people she was an Aphrodite child, but then the whole rage thing took place and I liked how that fit better. I wanted her to make at least Lila, maybe others, go insane like Dionysus did multiple times in myths, but I hadn't figured out how to trigger it until the whole rage thing. When that showed I was like "perfect! now to cultivate this" and it really just snowballed from there. I might write an outtake with the feathers, but I don't know for sure yet.</p><p>Leafhoppers are a very much not good grape plant predator. I figure with her parentage it was just kinda an instinctual curse. I had plans for her to say it in front of Dionysus and her to scold her for her language, but it never really fit anywhere. And now that I think about it, he really doesn't seem like the kind of parent who would scold his child for something like foul language. I mean, he did trick a man into killing his own son, and another man into getting torn apart by raving mad women - including the man's mother and wife - and he would definitely encourage her to drink and party and stay out late, so not a responsible, language-scolding parent.</p><p>The individual thread things that make up a feather are actually called barbs</p><p>I know I’m making Percy seem really cowardly, but I’m trying to make out Marinette as a truly terrifying person who you don’t want to cross, due to her parentage which activated when she reached godly influence in America. I'm very sorry about this, I love Percy, I really do, and he is /definitely /not// a coward. But it needed to happen for my story.</p><p>I realize I’m making Dionysus OOC, but my thinking is he acts differently towards his children, especially after the hints dropped when Castor died in canon.</p><p> </p><p>Also, please send me a comment voting on who to do next:<br/>Another god (I have several options, but feel free to mention one if you'd like a specific one)<br/>Tony Stark<br/>Sherlock Holmes<br/>Bruce Wayne<br/>Oliver Queen<br/>Clark Kent<br/>Lucifer (from the TV show Lucifer)</p><p>Merci beaucoup!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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